Proximity sensor devices (also commonly called touch pads or touch sensor devices) are widely used in a variety of electronic systems. A proximity sensor device typically includes a sensing region, often demarked by a surface, which uses capacitive, resistive, inductive, optical, acoustic and/or other technology to determine the presence, location and/or motion of one or more fingers, styli, and/or other objects. The proximity sensor device, together with finger(s) and/or other object(s), can be used to provide an input to the electronic system. For example, proximity sensor devices are used as input devices for larger computing systems, such as those found integral within notebook computers or peripheral to desktop computers. Proximity sensor devices are also used in smaller systems, including: handheld systems such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), remote controls, communication systems such as wireless telephones and text messaging systems. Increasingly, proximity sensor devices are used in media systems, such as CD, DVD, MP3, video or other media recorders or players.
One common application for a proximity sensor device is as an input device for interacting with a user interface, or UI. A typical UI includes a screen for displaying graphical and/or textual elements. In these applications the proximity sensor device can function as a value adjustment device, cursor control device, selection device, scrolling device, graphics/character/handwriting input device, menu navigation device, gaming input device, button input device, keyboard and/or other input device.
One issue with some past proximity sensor devices is that their functionality commonly requires the loading of a specialized piece of host software, commonly referred to as a type of specialized device driver, on the electronic system before the proximity sensor device can provide input to the system. For example, in a typical laptop computer system the proximity sensor device cannot be used for certain types of input until the operating system and the associated drivers have been loaded into the system. This prevents the proximity sensor device from being used for certain types of input during startup or in cases where the specialized host software has failed to properly load. This undesirably limits the functionality of proximity sensor device.
Thus, there exists a need for improvements in proximity sensor device usability that facilitates the use of proximity sensor devices as interface devices without requiring loading of the specialized host software onto the system.